"...not as vocabulary, not as syntax, not even as structure, but as a principle and a presence." -John Berger

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Monday, December 10, 2007

Kiji Kutani

Kiji Kutani is a 23 year old Japanese poet. The following poem was written when he was a high school student. To listen to him read click here.

Chill

The fading day lingers on,wavers,caught in a whirlpool with rifts in the grain.From the tips of my toesmy whole bodyburns with cold.And the fading day lingers on.A long beam of the setting sun shifts,touching rough frostfrozen deep in my core.As I bend downto peer at its swaying orange edgea sheet of brand-newscrap paper enters my view —even the unnecessary ripleft after I’d scribbled all over it:emptiness engrained in the weftof brand-new scrappaper.

Some people, it is said,see God when they close their eyes.Once I had a friendwho told me he sawa field of green foxtail, shoulder-highstretching far into the distancebutI’m ashamed to say that I myselfsee nothing at all.And yetif it’s a matter of surrendering oneself completelyto nothingness,I too yield my whole,now sun-bereftself.